A passion for video games is what the developer seeks foremost.

In light of the company’s recent hiring spree for their new Kyoto studio Monolith Soft President, Tetsuya Takahashi spoke about the criteria he’d be looking for when recruiting some one. And while knowing your programming and Havok technology is a given for the Xenosaga and Xenoblade developer, which is working on a new AAA RPG for the Nintendo Wii U, Takahashi has other things in mind.

“It’s quite common for a company to reject someone who only knows about games. We all have our preferences, but for us, I’d like to say that it’s the contrary. We’d most likely reject someone who doesn’t know his games. The reason being, we’d like to have someone who is as passionate about making games as we are.

“Of course it would be troublesome if gaming is the only thing one were to know about, but it would be even more troublesome if they didn’t know anything about it at all. We’re looking for someone who can enjoy making the game he made with his company.”

Essentially, Takahashi believes that knowledge alone isn’t enough if you don’t have the passion. Heck, it got legends like American McGee through the industry, so why not?